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3,500 die in earthquake at dawn

DOCTORS treating the survivors of a massive earthquake that killed more than 3,500 people on the Indonesian island of Java ran out of anaesthetic last night as hospitals were overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

So many mudbrick homes in the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta and the surrounding area were flattened that Oxfam warned the number of dead and injured could rise into the tens of thousands. Up to 95% of homes were destroyed in some villages.

The wounded were stretched out on plastic sheets and newspapers outside overflowing hospitals and wounds were being stitched without pain relief.

“We need help here,” said one doctor at Muhammadiyah hospital in Bantul, the closest to the epicentre. At the nearby Dr Sardjito hospital, bodies were lined up in a hallway.

Kevin Freedman, 25, in Yogyakarta, said countless injured were being trucked, bussed and biked to the Muhammadiyah.